


Widow What?

by Gtech1904



Series: Peter One-shots [9]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Bonding Spiders, Fluff, Peter is left to his own devices, meeting Black Widow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:21:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22010233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gtech1904/pseuds/Gtech1904
Summary: Peter meets Black Widow. Freaks out and has a small heart to heart.Third part of He’s What series
Relationships: Peter Parker & Natasha Romanov, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Peter One-shots [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1418827
Comments: 8
Kudos: 225





	Widow What?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bbblaney77](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bbblaney77/gifts).



Peter wandered the compound on his own tonight as Tony and Pepper had a meeting. Pepper had dragged a sulky Tony by the ear and had yelled a be good to him before the elevator doors closed. Sighing, Peter decided to explore. 

Tony had made one of the guest rooms, near Pepper and Tony’s room, his. He jumped on the Egyptian cotton sheeted bed before falling with a content sigh. The feature wall behind his bed was painted with chalkboard paint with GeNiUS spelled from the elements in the periodic table. 

The room had a L-shaped desk in the corner that already had homework and hastily scribbled designs on it. He gathered the papers and brought it with him to put in his lab later. Tony had given him a section of his own lab before he ended up taking over. Tony, annoyed, had given him his own on the floor below. Quickly, he exited the elevator to his floor. ASTRAEA greeted him and he gave a nod in return. 

The lab was a bit smaller than Tony’s and consisted of almost every machine he would need, most hidden behind walls so as to not seem as cluttered. He had a large desk in the corner with more papers and he set down the ones in his hand on top of the other stack. He lets ASTRAEA file the notes away in the holographic computer’s database. 

He has chemicals out for his experiments that Tony didn’t even know what for(it’s his web fluid) and since installing ASTRAEA to the lab, Friday didn’t have access without his permission. It had irked Tony and he had attempted to hack ASTRAEA but he stopped. Peter didn’t know if he just couldn’t or if Pepper had scolded Tony for trying to invade his privacy. Either way he was grateful and Peter added extra security to his AI, just in case. 

The room was painted a pale blue with a grey feature wall with a giant wall sticker that said “SCIENCE LAB” with terrible puns around it. Peter had ordered the puns unable to help himself, Pepper had smiled, indulgent, while Tony scowled at the offending stickers. Pepper had made him help put them up in retaliation and Peter thinks bonding time. It didn’t go great. Peter still got his stickers in the end, so he didn’t care so much. Tony never came to his lab, they worked together in Tony’s when he had time. 

Peter not to be deterred, escaped the room with a bye to ASTRAEA, having her lock the lab and moving on. 

An hour later of the same boring rooms, and the Avengers rooms on the bottom floor, he found the training room. It was large, and airy, and had room for flying and hand to hand. It also had perches high up, presumably for Hawkeye. A small corner of the room had a firing range for both arrows and guns. Another corner had a fighting ring and punching bags. Peter preferred restraining at a distance but knew the basics of how to throw a good punch and kick when he needed to. The area was more for the physical going heroes than the non lethal ones and Peter frowned. He knew the Avengers usually had big bads that only went down when dead but so did Peter, he didn’t kill though. 

He tried not to judge, he was sure if he had gone against them he wouldn’t have made it out alive. Not only that but every hero had a tragic backstory, some more extreme, making them more likely to use lethal force. Still, he doesn’t think he would be able to stomach looking at Tony if he killed without looking for another way. He knew Tony had killed, directly and indirectly and he doesn’t hold the past against him but the future had yet to happen and a lot could. 

A gunshot startled him for his thoughts. Looking towards the range found the one and only red headed female, Natasha Romanov, or Black Widow. Peter simply stared at her in all her glory, her raised eyebrow in his direction snapped him out of his revere. 

“Uhh... Miss Romanov!” Peter squeaked out. 

Miss Romanov set the gun down that she had fired only seconds ago, she must have done to get his attention, he idly notes. 

“You lost?” She asked. 

Peter opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again, “what?” He asked, dumbfounded. 

“Are you lost?” She repeats,”you’ve been standing in the middle of the room for five minutes,” she adds. Peter blushed, was it really five minutes. Peter shakes his head. 

“Thinking, I guess,” he settles on. 

“Oh? What about?” She asks, nonchalant. Peter isn’t as fooled though, he knows she’s interrogating him, subtly of course. Mj had tried to prepare him for any situation, and coming into contact with The Black Widow was Mj’s favorite to drill into him. Easily because she was the scariest and because she seemed to know everything. He answered honestly though. 

“Tony,” was all he said. She nodded. 

“Ever held a gun before...?” She asked, pausing at the ending for him to finish in, he raised an eyebrow of his own at the turn of conversation and nodded. 

“Peter, and yes, but I don’t like them,” keeping it simple. 

“Why, Peter?” She tilted her head slightly and Peter got the impression she was stalking her prey. 

“My uncle,” he responded, if she didn’t already know she could easily find out why. 

“Want to spare? I could teach you a few things,” Peter hesitated, not knowing her goal. Eventually, he nodded, it would be more suspicious if he declined. 

She got into a fighting position and Peter tried to mimic hers as best he could. She pointed out his flaws and moved him accordingly, and showing him how to keep himself in defense while looking for an opponent's pattern.

”Your small, use it. You may not have strength but you can be fast,” he nodded but he knew he had strength as well as speed thanks to the spider bite, but she didn’t know that. 

She started him out slow, getting a measure of his strengths and weaknesses, which Peter didn’t think was fair, but didn’t voice. Eventually, she deemed him passable to at least attempt to fight back instead of just defense. 

She ended up winning all of them as Peter didn’t use his powers. 

“Your holding back,” she stated, Peter only nodded, ”don’t,” she threatened. 

Peter set his jaw, using his powers more and more as the fight lasted longer than all the others combined. They both were starting to tire and Peter couldn’t find an opening and he had tried to create one that had backfired. He quickly regained his balance before “call me Natasha,” could get a hit in. 

Eventually, they called a draw. 

“That was good, a little too good,” Peter gulped behind her back as he grabbed water bottles from a side table. 

“Your just a good teacher,” he said hoping to at least get it to quail her curiosity till he left the room. 

“It’s more than that. How long have you been enhanced?” She brings up, Peter curses, of course she already knew, she just wanted to know how much of a threat he was. 

“A little over a year,” he said as he handed her the other water bottle. He looked towards a hidden camera he knew FRIDAY was connected to and breathed a sigh of relief as it flashed purple, the color he and ASTRAEA had decided on when she took over for private conversations. 

Natasha glanced to the camera, having followed his gaze and assessing it. He meets her gaze evenly and she narrows her eyes. 

“Spider-man?” She guesses. Peter nods, being the only new hero on the scene in a while he figured it wasn’t hard to guess. 

“What are you doing here, by yourself?” She asks and Peter stares for a few minutes before realizing she had asked a question. 

“Tony and Pepper has a meeting. I figured exploring couldn’t hurt,” he answered truthfully, he knew MJ would give him hell and a half but he knew better than to lie. I mean she’s the Black Widow, trained as a human lie detector. She was badass, besides Peter was a horrible liar. He much preferred deflecting and getting people to forget what they were asking. 

MJ had called it his first superpower, one he had honed ever since his mother and Richard died. He was great at using it with May, though over time she had realized what he was doing, he still can get around her though. Ben had been a different story, he caught on the second time he did it and they ended a crying ball of pillows and blankets. 

Anyway, he could deflect, but he couldn’t lie to save his life. So, he figured the truth with Natasha was the best plan of action. 

“Can I ask you a question?” Peter wondered. She inclined her head as a silent go ahead. 

“Why are you here?” He’s pretty sure she’s been on the run along with the other rogue Avengers, so why is she here? And why hadn’t FRI ratted her out?

“To see if it was true,” voice monotone, giving nothing away. Peter hates it, he can read May like a cook book, break down her emotions one at a time till he figures out what has her upset. Ned’s the same. He can tell Mj’s subtle ticks when she’s happy and annoyed, he’s getting better at her other emotions. Natasha has a blank face, eyes betraying nothing as she waits for him to ask what. But he knows what, he wants to see if he can surprise her. 

“Yes, it’s true,” he answers and Natasha blinks but let’s nothing else slip. 

“How do you know if it’s true if I haven’t said what I wanted clarified?” She tilts her head slightly, in intrigue. Peter huffs, shaking his head. 

“Clearly, you looked me up. You came here looking for me, knew Tony and Pepper weren’t here. Finding out I was Spider-man was just a bonus. There are only so many things you could be asking about,” he says, almost deadpan. He knows it’s petty but he doesn’t care. She can analyze him all she wants but he can deduce logic pretty well and it would make sense that she wants to know more about him. 

What he does get from Natasha is that she protects her own, maybe not in the best way for them but her heart is in the right place. She still cares about Tony and wants to make sure that Peter was really Tony’s son and not trying to be famous or get money out of him. 

Her eyes speaks of being impressed but he knows she won’t outwardly say so. 

“You could be a great spy,” she settles on. Peter breathes a thanks, not knowing how to take it. He doesn’t know if she thinks he’s a spy or if she sounded like she was close to trying to train him to be a spy. 

“So, your Tony’s, honest to Thor, son,” it’s a statement not a question but he inclines his head anyway and tries to think on her bringing Thor’s name into the conversation, even if she only did so because she didn’t believe in God so Thor worked as next best. He didn’t know. 

“Can I ask you another question?” He asks suddenly before his brain has time to process what his mouth said. 

“You just did, but sure,” giving a small upturn of her lips. 

“You... you ever think,” he stops to get his brain to form a sentence that makes sense and Natasha waits patiently.

“You ever think Tony is disappointed I’m his son?” He asks, voice small. He’s letting his insecurities show to a dangerous person he met three hours ago. Still he feels safe with said dangerous person and like she isn’t dangerous to him. It’s quiet as she processes the question. 

He knows she probably doesn’t have the answer and he should muster up the courage to ask Tony himself, but it’s earlier to ask a stranger about another stranger. 

“I think that he’s never been a dad before. That he could be scared to end up like his father. That he could mess it up and you never want him in your life again,” she speaks slowly and Peter wrings his fingers in anxiety. He doesn’t know much about Howard Stark, his grandfather, but he had heard a private conversation Tony had with Pepper the first night he stayed over. 

Tony had voiced his thoughts and Peter had listened, he tried shutting it out, focusing on other sounds but his brain said no. He heard the man's insecurities and doubts about being a good father. He was worried he would ruin Peter’s life and Peter didn’t think it was possible, not having Tony in his life would ruin it. He’s lost two sets of father figures, he doesn’t know if he can handle losing another. 

Pepper had whispered calming reassurances until they drifted off to sleep, but Peter had stayed awake that night. His mind went a hundred and one miles a minute and his brain came up with all sorts of scenarios, and his brain had stuck to Tony being distance as his fault. 

Thinking now, with Natasha’s words ringing in his ear it would make sense. Tony had missed over a decade of Peter’s life, he didn’t know how to be a dad, sure he was a father, but a dad was something more. A father helped create you and gave you their last name but a dad is there for everything. Every sick day and scraped knee, every birthday and Christmas, every heartbreak and triumph. Tony never got to do any of it and it made him insecure. Uncle Ben had gotten to do that, he was a dad in all but title, while Tony, he had to start from scratch. Figure out how to balance father and dad. 

“Thanks,” he says because he knows he's been quiet for a long time. Natasha nods, doesn’t ask what he had been thinking, or what conclusion he had made, she’s asked to spare again. See what all he can do.

She asks when he usually comes to the compound and he answers. It’s sporadic. She says to meet her every Friday at Red Hook Grain Terminal in Brooklyn. He doesn’t question what they would be doing at an abandoned grain elevator from the 1960’s, just nods and watches as she disappears. 

**Author's Note:**

> Any science puns to share. Love these dorks!


End file.
